Gleaning

Gleaning. The gleaning of fruit trees, as well as of corn-fields, was reserved for the poor. See Corner.

The right was secured to the poor in harvest and vintage (Lev 19:9-10; Rth 2:6; Rth 2:8-9).

At the harvest and the vintage gleaning was strictly forbidden to be carried out by the owners: the residue must always he left for the poor. Lev 19:9-10; Lev 23:22; Rth 2:2-23, etc. Gideon appeased the wrath of Ephraim by saying "Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer?" (Gideon’s family name). Jdg 8:2.

GLEANING.—For the humanitarian provisions of the Pentateuchal codes, by which the gleanings of the cornfield, vineyard, and oliveyard were the perquisites of the poor, the fatherless, the widow, and the gçr outlander, see Lev 19:9 f., Lev 23:22 (both H [Note: Law of Holiness.] ), Deu 24:19-21; cf. Agriculture, § 3; Poverty.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

glēn´ing (לקט, lāḳaṭ, עלל, ‛ālal): The custom of allowing the poor to follow the reapers in the field and glean the fallen spears of grain is strikingly illustrated in the story of Ruth (Ruth 2:2-23). This custom had back of it one of the early agricultural laws of the Hebrews (Lev 19:9; Lev 23:22; Deu 24:19-21). Breaking this law was a punishable offense. The generosity of the master of the crop determined the value of the gleanings, as the story of Ruth well illustrates (Rth 2:16). A reaper could easily impose upon the master by leaving too much for the gleaners, who might be his own children. The old Levitical law no longer holds in the land, but the custom of allowing the poor to glean in the grain fields and vineyards is still practiced by generous landlords in Syria. The writer has seen the reapers, even when they exercised considerable care, drop from their hands frequent spears of wheat. When the reapers have been hirelings they have carelessly left bunches of wheat standing behind rocks or near the boundary walls. The owner usually sends one of his boy or girl helpers to glean these. If he is of a generous disposition, he allows some needy woman to follow after the reapers and benefit by their carelessness. It is the custom in some districts, after the main crop of grapes has been gathered, to remove the watchman and allow free access to the vineyards for gleaning the last grapes.

Gideon touched the local pride of the men of Ephraim when he declared that the glory of their conquest surpassed his, as the gleanings of their vineyards did the whole crop of Abiezer (Jdg 8:2). Gleaned is used of a captured enemy in Jdg 20:45.

Figurative: Israel, because of her wickedness, will be utterly destroyed, even to a thorough gleaning and destruction of those who first escape (Jer 6:9). The same picture of complete annihilation is given in Jer 49:9, Jer 49:10.